1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a walking substructure device and a process for moving heavy equipment without dismantling the structure. In particular, the present invention is directed to a walking substructure device and process wherein an entire drilling rig can be moved in any direction without dismantling the drilling structure.
2. Prior Art
It is not uncommon at a drilling site to have multiple drill bores. This is done because of the expense of the drilling rig and its operation and to facilitate servicing of completed wells. It is often desirable to move a large drilling rig, including all of its equipment, from one well bore to another. In the past, it has been necessary to disassemble or "rig down" the drilling structure which required laying down the mast, moving the drilling structure to an alternate well bore, and then reassembling the drilling structure.
An additional problem is that the rig can not move down the row of well bores since the rig straddles the well bore and would have to move over an existing well head, sometimes 12 to 15 feet high. One solution in the past has been to raise the entire drilling structure ten to fifteen feet from ground level and move the drill structure over an existing well head. Also in the past, systems have been established where a series of parallel skids are placed between adjacent wells in order to slide the drilling structure from one well head to another. All of these past solutions have been time consuming and labor intensive.
It would be advantageous to provide a device and a process to move heavy equipment on land so that an entire drilling structure might be moved.
It would also be advantageous to provide a walking substructure device for moving heavy equipment that would move a drilling rig in any horizontal direction without dismantling.
It would additionally be advantageous to provide a walking substructure device for moving heavy equipment that would move a drilling rig in a rotational direction without dismantling.
It would also be advantageous to provide a walking substructure device which includes mechanisms in the substructure to move the entire drilling rig.
It would also be advantageous to provide a walking substructure device that is capable of incrementally displacing the entire drilling rig.
It would also be advantageous to provide a walking substructure device that may be installed and utilized with existing rig substructures.